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Review Summary

Ric Burns’s solemn four-hour hagiography may set a record for the number of times the label “genius” is applied to its subject. The label sticks. The smart, scholarly hyperbole poured over every aspect of Warhol’s art by assorted talking heads is supported by much of what is shown. Noted are his prodigious gifts as a colorist and a draftsman, his innovative use of “the blotted line” in his drawings and the way his early films, shot at the standard sound speed of 24 frames a second and projected at the silent speed of 16 frames a second, slowed down time. More broadly, the word “genius” is used to describe his eradication of the distinction between commercial and fine art and how that changed the way we see the world. The movie assures us that Warhol was the greatest artist of the second half of the 20th century, just as Picasso was of the first half. Written by James Sanders and Mr. Burns, and narrated by Laurie Anderson in her best medical technician voice, the movie is an entirely absorbing, occasionally revelatory portrait of a brilliant talent driven to greatness by an inner chorus of demons and angels. — Stephen Holden